Shoe with sole edge binding and welt



1949- w. MILL-S ET AL 2,460,262

SHOE WITH SOLE EDGE BINDING AND WELT Filed Nov. 15, 1945 4 I 2 10227222 1%..6 Z/iaMA M, YM/f/W- 4 Patented Jan. 25, 1949 r UNITED STATES PATENTYVOFFICEI" William 'L. Mills, Keene, N. H., and Frederick W. Kruger, Worcester, Mass, 'assignors to Sealed Seam Welt Process, 1110., Boston, Mass Y a corporation of Massachusetts Application November 15, 1945, Serial No. 628,762

1 Claim. (01. 36-16) This invention consists in a new and improved process of making welt shoes and in the novel shoe herein shown as produced thereby.

The general object of the invention is to produce a welt shoe of sturdy construction-and attractive appearance while at the same time eliminating certain of the most troublesome and expensive operations heretofore considered necessary in the manufacture of welt shoes. For example, by the process of our invention channeling of the insole is avoided as well as the usual lip turning, setting and reinforcing operations on the insole, the upper trimming operation is dispensed with, and instead of the diflicult inseam or a welt sewing step, we are able to secure the welt in place by employing a straight needle sewing machine.

In addition to the economies in manufacture above mentioned, we produce a shoe which is more flexible than welt shoes of conventional e construction because we have no rib in the insole, we produce a welt seam which is completely sealed and so waterproof, we eliminate the objection of guttering and of the between substance breaking out between the stitches of the welt, and we reduce the overall thickness of the shoe bottom by eliminating any necessity for a layer of bottom filler. In addition we are able in most cases to eliminate the pulling-over, side lasting, inseam trimming and bed lasting operations. I 7

These desirable results are secured by employ ing a composite binding and welt strip which may be attached to the insole by a vertical seam passing through its marginal edge, then wrapped or lasted about the margin of the insole in such a way as to locate the welt strip in a horizontal position projecting beyond the insole in convenient position to receive the outseam.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred manner of practising the process, illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective on a somewhat enlarged scale of the combined welt and binding strip employed in carrying out the process of our invention,

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view on an enlarged scale illustrating the step of attaching the upper to the insole,

Fig. 3 is a similar view suggesting the additional step of attaching the combined binding and welt strip to the insole,

Fig. 4 is a similar view suggesting the steps of lasting or wrapping the binding strip and attaching the outsole,-

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view illustrating a modification in the fitting of the upper and welt, and

Fig. 6 is a view in elevation of the forepart of the resulting shoes. i

In practising the process of our invention we employ a combined binding and welt strip of the character shown in Fig; 1. This comprises a wide binding strip [0 which may be of leather or suitable textile material, and a slightly narrower welt strip 1 I which may be of leather. These two strips are secured together by an intermediate stitchline l2 and a marginal stitchline I3. The two components of this combined strip are disposed with their grain or finished faces in contact, and the intermediate stitchline I2 is so located as to leave the upper or outer marginal edge of the welt free.

The insole may be of any desired thickness,

for example, 3 to 9 irons. In carrying out our process it is practicable to use an insole as thin as 3 irons because the insoleis not subjected to channeling. The marginal edge face It of the insole is preferably beveled at a slightinclination to the vertical, and its lower flat marginal face It is skived or beveled so that it is somewhat reduced in thickness as compared to the body of the insole. The upper l! is cut accurately to pattern without lasting allowance and is'now secured to the, margin of the insole as suggested in Fig. 2 by a stitchline l8 which passes vertically through the margin of the insole "and may be formed by a straight needle machine. In Fig. 2

the margin of the upper is shown as projecting downwardly somewhat over the .marginal edge face of the insole, while in Fig. 5 it. is shown as terminating substantially flush with that face. The construction shown in Fig. 5 is generally preferable since it permits the edge of the upper to be gauged flush with the margin of the insole.

The next step of the process consists in securing the margin of the combined binding and welt strip to the insole as suggested in Fig. 3; that is to say, by superposing its free margin above the upper and permanently securing it in this position by a vertical line of stitching I9 which is disposed slightly within the stitchline I 8 securing the upper in place.

The next step of the process as herein illustrated consists in folding the combined strip I 0- I outwardly and downwardly, doubling the binding strip outwardly over its attached marginal portion, then wrapping it tightly about the margin of the insole, and finally drawing it, with the attached welt strip ll, inwardly over the bottom face of the insole and cementing it securely in place. In this folding and wrapping operation the stitchlines l2 and i3 are brought beneath the insole, and the single-ply welt strip I l is disposed in substantially horizontal position with its free edge projecting beyond the now bound edge of the insole. The welt is thus brought, without the necessity of any welt beating operation, into the horizontal position most convenient for reception of the outs'ole.

An outsole is shown in Fig. 4 as secured to the welt strip II by a lock-stitch seam 24. It

will be understood that the outsole'is laid as'in conventional shoemaking, and with the welt cemented in place the shoe may be presented to the rapid lock-stitch machine which is available for this operation. The binding strip with the attached welt is securely held in place by cement and this portion of the shoe bottom is further consolidated .by the attachment of the outsole 20 which compresses the stitchlines 1.2 and 13 between itself and-the bottom of the insole. The welt strip .11 projects outwardly beyond the contour of the binding strip so that it may be reached conveniently in the outsole stitching "operation. The beveled bottom of the insole provides sufficient space for the reception of the inner portion of the combined binding and welt strip so that the outsole may directly engage the insole in that case a thin layer of bottom filler might prove desirable. I

The shoe of our invention may be made by the slip-lasting or force-lasting process, that is to say, the last is forced into the upper only after the upper has been secured to the insole and at any convenient time before the outsole is layed. The binding strip may be turned either oif'the last or after the last has'been inserted.

The shoe of our invention exhibits surprising flexibility for a welt shoe and this we believeis largely due to the fact that it contains no horizon'tally disposedseam, like the usual welt inseam, that tends to prevent bending of the shoe bottom. The usual welt seam is put underhigh tension when curved in the shoe bottom about the outer face of an insole, and there is no corresponding tension developed under the same circumstances by the vertlcal'seams o'f ourimproved shoe.

Vinyl'ite or other suitable synthetic resin. In

the illustrated embodiment of the invention the composite strip has the novel characteristic herein shown, viz. that the two portions are united in overlapping relation, with their inner edges substantially flush, and both have one free 7 unattached margin.

As already noted, the several lines of "fine stitching formed by straight needle sewing that The appearance of our improved shoe may be controlled by the thickness of the margin of the insole. If a thin insole, or one having a reduced margin, is employed the shoe will have a line storm welt appearance, while a thick margin of insole will give a platform eifect in the shoe. Moreover the heel seat may .be stitched like the forepart or it may be lasted and tacked as preferred.

Having thus disclosed our invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

A welt shoe having an unchanneled insole beveled about its outer marginal .face,.an upper with an out-turned margin stitched to the edge of the insole byaline of vertical stitching, a composite binding and welt strip stitched to the edge of the insole by a line of vertical stitching located inside the upper-attaching stitching and passing completely through the insole, said composite strip including a binding band wrapped about the edge of the insole and a single-ply welt strip stitched to the binding band and lying with its inner edge outside'the inner edge of the binding band, and an outsole making flat contact with the insole and the welt strip and stitched thereto by a line of stitching located outside the outer contour of the "binding band.

WILLIAM L. MILLS. FREDERICK W. KRUGER.

nnrnnnnces crrEn The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name "Date 2,276,686 Chevalier Mar. 17, 1942 2,339,726 Stritter Jan. 18, 1944 2,378,074 Ferriero June 12, 1945 2,397,316 Horvit Mar. 26, 1946 

